As the world's leading provider of confidential insider information from 1979 to 2000, Auto Industry Newsletter has now re-emerged by popular request to provide chief executives with the insight necessary to meet today's challenges.
Editor: John Mortimer

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

In the heady world of North American Class 8 trucks, for the likes of
Cummins, Eaton and Meritor, life is a constant battle (in engines,
transmissions and axles) against the forces of vertical integration that are steadily
being imposed by European-controlled OEMs.

Both Hyundai and Kia must have done some serious benchmarking exercises of
European medium and upper-end passenger cars to be able to determine where the
epicentre of ride and handling expertise can be found.

In the same way
that production of castings at 5565 Brookville Road, Indianapolis, Indiana ends
in 2015 (see next news story), so too will Ford Motor Company end its Blue Diamond truck-making joint venture with
Navistar.

Navistar
International’s chief executive officer, Troy Clarke, continues to comb through
the beleaguered company’s business in search of any area where he can cut
costs. And his latest move brings no Christmas cheer for some employees.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Florida State
University, University of Michigan and Coherixare
collaborating with a major automotive OEM to optimize the machining parameters
for the new compacted graphite iron (CGI) engine blocks going into their new
trucks.

Friday, 28 November 2014

Over 50 Tier 1 and
Tier 2 suppliers attended an event this week staged by JaguarLandRover (JLR),
the UK’s largest automotive employer, to share best practices around skills
development and address recruitment challenges.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Russia
will emerge as a top automotive market in Europe as consumers in the country
are beginning to place emphasis on driving dynamics and are willing to pay more
for advanced driveline technology features.

Tofas, a joint-venture (JV) between Turkey's Koc
Holding and Italy's Fiat, is to expand its investment programme and spend a
total of US$1 billion to produce three new cars in Turkey, mainly destined for
export, according to the Zaman newspaper.

Is The General’s
dream of seriously stepping up to the pick-up truck diesel engine table to
rival Chrysler and Ford be about to be realised?

Chevrolet introduced at the Los Angeles auto show this week the
Colorado ZR2 concept – a vision of how The General's division could take the all-new midsize
truck’s off-road capability to the next level.

Thursday, 20 November 2014

In
this “engine”, in which hydrogen and oxygen are combined to form pure water., the Powertrain of the future? In the fuel cell, Energy is
released in a "cold combustion" process to provide the drive energy for an
electric motor that turns with zero emissions.

Friday, 14 November 2014

The foundation stone
has been laid for Volkswagen’s new plant in Września, near Poznań where the
next generation Volkswagen Crafter will be built, with production set to begin in the second half of 2016.

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Professor Lord Kumar
Bhattacharyya, who has created a business out of education and industrial
R&D, was the “kingpin” in the deal to persuade Indian carmaker Tata to
purchase JaguarLandRover from Ford, according to a magazine just published.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

The University of Warwick, its relationship with
Jaguar LandRover (JLR) and its commitment to the UK automotive industry appears
to be going from strength to strength.

A further £32 million of State funding has
been declared for two new projects to research manufacturing technology for
electric motors and develop cleaner internal combustion engines, during the
official opening today of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) headquarters at
the University of Warwick.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Daimler Trucks’ US subsidiary booked its highest level of incoming
orders in October, as customers ordered a total of 31,304 Class 6 – 8
NAFTA and export vehicles of the Freightliner, Western Star, and Thomas Built Buses name plates.

According to the data collected by the Americas
Commercial Transportation Research (ACT) organization, Daimler Trucks North
America (DTNA) achieved a new monthly order record for a single manufacturer in
the North American truck business.

The advantage of hybrid vehicles over frugal diesels can be an illusion,
if the judging criteria are based solely on fuel economy, according to
Emissions Analytics – a leading provider of real-world emissions measurement.

Emissions Analytics has tested over 30 hybrids in
the UK and US, and analysed thousands of data points to understand how such
vehicles really perform in the real world, and compared them to vehicles with conventional
internal combustion engines (ICE) only.

Friday, 31 October 2014

Mystery appears to
continue to surround the future of F1 racing team Caterham. As the month of
October closes, employees appear not to have been paid, and those with
mortgages have been forced to seek alternative employment

Employees
who have tried to respond to company emails informing them of cancellation of
flights to the US and Brazil have been thwarted – no replies have been forthcoming
and they have been left in the dark. Some 200 employees have been affected by
the lock-out.

As readers know, JaguarLandRover’s (JLR) Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) will be home
to the ‘Ingenium’ engine family, which will power a new generation of JLR
products designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK. The company says
flawless standards will be adopted in the plant that is "future proof".

Production begins with the 2-litre diesel engine in
the Jaguar XE. JLR is transforming its business and brands through a programme
of sustainable, strategic investments, it claims.

Ricardo plc is forming a new motorcycle-focused
business following the acquisition of Leicester-based UK consultancy Vepro Ltd
in a bid to make it a global activity.

The formation of the new motorcycles business aims to build on the strengths
of the company’s extensive existing in-house motorcycle engineering team, based
at the company’s Schwäbisch Gmünd Technical Centre in southern Germany.

Monday, 27 October 2014

By 2050, most vehicles
will need to be electrically propelled, with a battery to store energy or an
on-board hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity, if emission targets set by
governments are to be met.

That
is the conclusion of a team responsible for penningTowards
Sustainable Road Transportpublished by Elsevier.

Sunday, 26 October 2014

The demise of MG
Rover refuses to go away. Five former MG Roverbosses
are in line for around £1 million each from the proceeds of the collapsed MG
Rover car factory – years after 6,500 redundant workers were deprived of a
single penny, according to newspapers reports.

The
following is a report taken from the UK's Birmingham
Mail of 25 October 2014.

Friday, 24 October 2014

Mercedes-Benz, part of Daimler AG, has won two awards for the
development of new materials in two different applications: pistons and struts.

Mercedes-Benz is claiming between 2 and 4 per cent
improved fuel consumption and CO2 emissions
from its passenger-car diesel engines resulting from "new" pistons. These are, according to Mercedes-Benz, the
first engines worldwide to be equipped with "innovative" steel pistons in
conjunction with a lightweight aluminium cylinder block.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

By 2016, JaguarLandRover (JLR) expects its new facility in China to be building
three JLR models with total production capacity of 130,000 units a year.

Those vehicles will be manufactured in
highly-automated press shops - including cutting-edge aluminium and steel
technologies - along with a steel body shop comprising 306 ABB robots, an
energy-efficient paint shop and an ergonomically-friendly final assembly line.

Daimler has reorganized its cooperation with Tesla Motors Inc.;
terminated the share-price hedge it initiated in 2013 and sold its four per
cent stake in Tesla.

Daimler adds that cooperation between the partners
on the automotive projects is unaffected and, while development work for the
Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive is completed, “the partnership with Tesla
remains in place”.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)
has confirmed that Her Majesty the Queen will officially open the company’s
new, state-of-the-art Engine Manufacturing Centre on Thursday October 30th2014.
HM The Queen will be accompanied during the visit by His Royal Highness The
Duke of Edinburgh.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Daimler AG will
invest a combined €450 million to produce the next generation Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
in two plants at Düsseldorf and Ludwigsfelde, but the German vehicle maker will build more vans in the
US to increase its competitiveness.

Part
of the new investment will be used to modernize the body shop, paint shop, and
assembly line at Düsseldorf.

Monday, 20 October 2014

Is JaguarLandRover (JLR)
mulling an ambitious plan to build a 200,000 cars-a-year assembly plant in the
US? According to the London, UK-based Sunday
Times it is.

The
news comes as the company officially opens a new 130,000 vehicles-a-year plant
in China and later this month is set to open its much-heralded i54 engine manufacturing
facility in Wolverhampton, UK.

Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant, UK, which supplies half of the company’s
global diesel demand, seems to be assured of its future thanks to an additional £190 million
to produce the new Panther advanced technology 2-litre diesel engine for cars and
commercial vehicles.

This investment includes £8.9 million from UK
Government's Regional Growth Fund. Ford is creating 318 new jobs connected with
this investment.

Friday, 17 October 2014

Trading has begun in
the shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles which are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange under the stock ticker symbol “FCAU”.

The shares opened on 14 October at a price of $9. The
price rose briefly before ending the day at $8.92. Considering the Dow Jones
industrial average dropped 222 points late in the day, this was no mean achievement. The stock also trades on
an exchange in Milan, Italy.

Thursday, 16 October 2014

BYD Auto has delivered
34 e6 taxis to the city of Brussels. BYD auto claims to be “the fastest growing
car maker in China”.

The company’s proposal was accepted following a proposal seeking
parties to operate 50 electric taxicabs. The use of these “environmentally-friendly”
taxicabs is seen as an important “first step in bringing emission-free
transport to Brussels’s roads”, replacing gasoline- and diesel-powered taxis
with electric vehicles (EVs).

Saturday, 11 October 2014

PEMS – portable emissions
measurement systems – developed by Horiba Automotive has been used in trials in
Brighton, UK in conjunction with Ricardo plc, to assess ‘real world’ emissions
from three buses, including a diesel-electric hybrid.

PEMS
was developed in response to new requirements for exhaust emissions measurement
from vehicles being driven on public roads.

Friday, 10 October 2014

Volkswagen Group delivered 7.40 million vehicles from January to September - an increase of 5.3 per cent.

Group board member for sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg today,"Even though markets remain challenging, we nevertheless have the chance to reach the ten million deliveries mark this year – four years earlier than originally planned."

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Lotus F1 Team and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains have a long-term supply agreement that will see Lotus F1 Team use the Mercedes-Benz Power Unit from the start of the 2015 season until the end of the current Power Unit generation.

Lotus F1 Team will be supplied with Mercedes-Benz Power Units by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) based in Brixworth, UK. The Power Unit will use Fluid Technology Solutions developed by PETRONAS, the technology partner of Mercedes-Benz.

GKN has developed the world’s first 'disconnect' All-Wheel Drive (AWD) system for A-, B- and C-segment vehicle platforms. The company claims the system improves fuel economy during steady state cruising by up to four per cent.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Volkswagen is about to place an order for a large number of industrial robots offering a lucrative prize to the successful robot vendor. Increasingly, these robots will be used for assembly work and one robot builder may not be able to cope with all of VW's needs.

The move is likely to be repeated several times over the coming 15 years as 32,000 people are expected to leave the German vehicle builder.

Monday, 6 October 2014

Observers are watching with interest, now that Volvo's 45 per cent stakeholding in Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles Co. Ltd. is official, to what extent the Swedish company will be able to influence senior executives in the Chinese truck maker, which has been in business since 1969.

The more so since Cummins Inc. of the US and Dongfeng have a 50-50 joint venture company, Dongfeng Cummins Engine Co. Ltd. Also Knorr-Bremse Commercial Vehicle Systems is expanding in China by taking a 51 per cent stake in Dongfeng Electronic & Technology Co. Ltd to make parts for commercial braking systems.

Friday, 3 October 2014

Production is now under way of the next generation Smart fortwo and the Smart forfour in readiness for the vehicles going on sale in November.
The two new vehicles are built on a new four-wheel-drive architecture that has involved teams from Daimler and Renault which have been working together for the last four years.

The Smart fortwo is being built at Smart's plant in Hambach whereas the forfour and the Renault Twingo are being assembled at the French company's plant in Novo Mesto in Slovenia.

Meanwhile, production of the jointly developed 2-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine has begun at a joint Daimler-Nissan plant, namely the Infiniti Decherd Plant in Decherd, Tennessee.

Interestingly, this new engine will appear, according to sources, in Infinity Q50 vehicles as well as the Mercedes C-Class, which may open a few eyes!

Thursday, 2 October 2014

The Ducati Superleggera twin-cylinder engine can rotate up to 11,000rev/min and has the legendary desmodromic valves as well as titanium connecting rods. The engine drives through as seven-speed double-clutch (DSG) gear box. The engine also makes extensive use of magnesium.

As for the body shell of the XL Sport, VW engineers have adopted resin transfer moulding (RTM), a technology first developed in the UK in the1960s by Lotus, for the carbon fibre composite material (CFRP).

The aerodynamic profile of the XL Sport is sufficient to require no more than a drag coefficient of 0.258.

China is forecast to
make 30 million cars by 2015 and account for 30 per cent of the world market.

This
is the view of Liu Jincheng of SinterCast Trading (Beijing) Co. Ltd who notes that
in 2013, car production and sales amounted to 22,116,800 and 21,984,100
vehicles respectively. The figures show an increase of 14.8 per cent and 13.9
per cent respectively compared to the previous year and account for 25 per cent of the world share.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

The new Audi TT Sportback five-door concept car that will appear at the Paris Motor Show is powered by a 2-litre TFSI engine developing 400PS and 450Nm of torque.

Audi claims that as a member of the EA888 family, the engine in the four-wheel-drive Quattro concept car uses a comprehensive "package of high-end technologies".

In order to generate the high power, Audi notes that the engine has undergone extensive modifications. The camshaft adjustment on the intake and exhaust sides and the Audi valvelft system, which varies the stroke of the exhaust valve in two stages, ensures good filling of the combustion chambers.

Audi notes that the crankcase consists of "a new high-strength casting alloy" and the crankshaft has enforced iaultrahigh-strength steel.

The redeveloped turbocharger has been configured to provide a boost pressure of 1.8 bar.

The gasoline engine has been teamed with a seven-speed S-Tronic gearbox.

Andy Palmer is the
new chief executive officer of Aston Martin. He has spent the last 24 years
with Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK where latterly he has been chief planning
officer and executive vice president.

Palmer,
51, assumes operational responsibility for all aspects of Aston Martin business
and thus one of his prime interests no doubt will be to turn the company round
and put it on a long-term profitable footing.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Just as ABB robots provide
the backbone of automation at BMW’s Plant Oxford in the UK, which has just started
to build the Mini 5-door Hatch, so it is at VDL Nedcar in Born, Holland where
ABB robots form the backbone of automation in the body-in-white shop.

According
to sources, VDL Nedcar has nearly 1,000 robots on site, with most of them
provided by the Swedish robot maker ABB. However, some robots have been shipped
in by German automation specialist KUKA of Augsburg.

Thursday, 25 September 2014

Water-cooled
electric superchargers, developed as a hybridsystem for commercial vehicle
applications, and designed to reduce NOxand CO2emissions, are proposed at the 19th
Supercharging Conference in Dresden this week.

Delegates to the conference have heard a
technical paper on electric supercharging from AVL.

As German truck maker MAN establishes closer ties with fellow VW stablemate Scania through shareholding and heavy truck transmission technology, it also appears to have moved the goalposts with its newly-developed 15.2-litre, six-cylinder in-line D3876, the latest of
the company’s Euro 6 range of engines.

With torque figures of 2500 to 3000Nm and power
outputs of 520 and 560bhp for long distance and towing vehicles, or 640bhp for
heavy goods vehicles, the D3876 is the company’s top model and offers a
160kg weight-saving over a Euro 5 unit.

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

On the same day Audi
announced its revised TT Roadster and TTS Roadster, Volkswagen unveiled its new
Golf Alltrack – a crossover between estate and SUV (sport utility vehicle).
Both will debut at the Paris Motor Show next month.

One
striking feature of their specifications is in the choice of powertrain.

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Six months after introducing the new Mini 3-Door Hatch to the UK, BMW
has launched the Mini 5-Door Hatch.

This second body variant, made at Plant Oxford,
features a characteristically sporty profile with a wheelbase is 72mm longer than
the 3-Door Hatch. The extra length has been used to create more cabin space. The 3-Door Hatch is made at the Born plant in The Netherlands of VDL NedCar. Production began on 17 July of this year.

Volkswagen claims its
new Tristar beefy pick-up is the “transporter of the
future”.

The company suggests it is “The best for your
business, whatever it may be,” which is stretching a point, and may certainly
draw a wry smile from Ford which claims to be the best at producing pick-up
trucks.

Saturday, 20 September 2014

Mercedes-Benz is realigning global passenger car lines, imposing top job
changes and investing in its German passenger car plants.

“We want to continue to grow and will significantly
increase our production capacities in the coming years. At the same time we
want to permanently and sustainably strengthen our competitiveness with a
high-performance organization,” declared Markus Schäfer, member of the
divisional board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, production and supply chain management.

Eight Fuso Canter E-Cell 6-tonne GVW trucks have been put into “real-life
testing” with customers in Portugal for a year

Mitsubishi Fuso, Daimler’s partner in Japan, claims to be a
pioneer of "green" drive systems for the commercial vehicle sector.
The subsidiary in Japan is Daimler Trucks' centre of competence for hybrid technology.